Redemption (Desire Never Dies)

by Clara Grace Walker

  “Why are you trying to defend her?” Scott glared at her. “What do you know about it anyhow?”

  Without warning, tears filled her eyes.

  “Mindy, is there something you’d like to share with the group?” Belinda asked.

  “Purge the soul,” the group chanted. “Cleanse the soul. Heal the soul.”

  She shook her head. “No.” And, dear God, why wouldn’t they stop chanting?

  “Why are you tearing up?”

  “I just feel badly for Scott, carrying around all that anger and feeling like his mother didn’t love him.”

  “And why do you feel that way?”

  “Because I’m not without compassion.”

  Belinda frowned. “You’re sure that’s all?”

  “She’s not sure about anything,” Darla said. “She doesn’t even remember coming here.”

  “What’s your problem?” Mindy asked. “You said yourself you have a boyfriend. So why do you still care about Vince and me four years after you dated him?”

  “You…I don’t…Oh shut up!” Darla sputtered before clamping her lips together and glaring.

  Mindy released a breath. That certainly shut her ass up. “Guess we’re going to spare the group a continuation of that fight we had at the club.”

  “That’ll be enough out of both of you,” Belinda ordered. “That is not what this group exists for.” She narrowed her gaze on Mindy. “Are you ready to begin sharing constructively now?”

  “I’ve done as much sharing as I’m inclined to.”

  “That’s not a very constructive attitude.”

  Asking the woman what kind of attitude a person should have after being drugged, having someone in their room while they were in a semi-conscious state and witnessing a body being dumped in the woods didn’t seem like a good idea. She closed her eyes and started softly singing Show Me What I’m Looking For, sad to realize her voice still sounded like an angry cat.

  “Seriously?” Darla rolled her eyes. “You think we came here for a concert?”

  Mindy arched a brow. “I guess you’ve found all your answers then.”

  “You have a beautiful voice,” Joey said.

  Belinda sighed, a hint of emotion rolling out in the single breath. “Can we please get back to sharing and gifting?”

  A knock on the door interrupted her plea and Rory poked his head inside. “I’m sorry,” he said. “There’s a call for Mindy from Anthony Howard, and Shirley said she needs to talk to him.”

  She followed Rory to the rec room, a sort of glassed-in porch filled with comfy sofas, easy chairs, books and a pool table. No TV. Outside, leaves dripped wet with the remnants of the morning’s thunderstorm and now swayed in the wind like hula dancers. She stared out the window, dragging her gaze slowly toward the exit, and the surveillance camera mounted above the door. Video cameras were everywhere. You couldn’t help but notice them as you walked around the place. She hadn’t missed the guards patrolling the grounds either. No way could a body be carried out of here without someone in charge knowing about it. The thought made her shudder.

  Sliding onto a rust-colored sofa, she took the receiver from Rory with a jittering hand. The phone was an ancient, rotary landline, minus the dial feature. Meaning calls could be taken, but not placed. Couldn’t have people calling the police about dead bodies or anything, could they?

  “Anthony,” she said. “Mind telling me what’s going on?”

  “You’re in rehab,” he said, as always making it sound like he was barking at her.

  He wanted her on his record label. Convincing him to get her the hell out of here shouldn’t be a problem. “I know. What I’d like to know is why am I in rehab?”

  “Are you kidding me?” He laughed on the other end. “You went on a two-day binge of booze and pills and God knows what else; dressing up like a clown, breaking windows on Rodeo Drive, skinny dipping in Malibu, streaking through Aspen in the middle of a snow storm. And you want to know why you’re in rehab?”

  She winced. Had she really done all that? She didn’t remember any of it. And when had she gone to Colorado? What the hell was in that joint Vince’s friend had smoked with her anyhow? “Okay,” she allowed. “I could use a little time drying out, but what’s with getting a court order and signing me in someplace without my permission?”

  “Are you nuts? You were so zoned out you didn’t know what day it was when I caught up to you. I was afraid you were going to kill yourself if I didn’t do something.”

  “And we both know you only care because you make too much money off me to have me pushing up daisies somewhere.”

  “Don’t be a cynical snot,” he snapped. “You always make it sound like you’re just a paycheck to me.”

  “I am just a paycheck to you. And you don’t want your cash cow shuffled off to the beef factory. Not as long as I’m still producing milk anyway.”

  “Whether my concern is personal or business doesn’t matter. You’re out of control.”

  “I’m not a complete idiot. I know I have a problem.” She shook her head, trying to think, trying to get everything straight. “And I get I was out of control, but couldn’t you just wait until I sobered up and have a talk with me?

  “I’m having a talk with you now.”

  His smart-ass attitude pissed her off. “I meant couldn’t you have a talk with me before you got guardianship over me and threw me into rehab?”

  “No.” His voice rose. “I’m tired of putting up with this crap. I’ve invested a lot of time building your career, making you famous, publicizing you all over the place so your records were the ones radio stations played, instead of some other wannabe’s. And you’ve spent the last two years destroying all my hard work.” He paused. “Your last album sank like a rock to the bottom of the charts. You’re either going to do a stint in rehab and get your act cleaned up, or I am personally going to see to it the only singing you do from now on is at a bar during karaoke night. You hear me?”

  “I hear you.” Singing was the only thing she had left in the world. She couldn’t lose her career, too. She wanted to cry, but not in front of Rory and the prison guard in a black security uniform standing in the doorway. “I’ll do rehab, but not here. I want to go someplace reputable, like Betty Ford. I want out of here. This place is full of psychos.”

  “No it’s not. I went there for my gambling addiction and I know it works. Now quit your whining and get with the program.”

  With that he hung up, effectively ending any further argument. Mindy no longer cared who was watching. She pulled her knees up to her chin and started to cry. She was trapped. And she hated being trapped.

  Chapter 10

  Shirley looked at her brother with disdain. He’d slunk into her office like a whipped dog, head bowed low, gaze glued to the floor, and took a seat on the opposite side of her desk.

  “You never fail to amaze me.” She walked around the piece of mahogany furniture separating them, standing over him and staring hard at his downcast eyes. It had rained most of the morning and the overcast sky left the afternoon gloomy and bathed her office in shadows. “Do you know how hard I’ve worked to raise us up from our humble beginnings? To give us an important life and achieve the special place destiny has set aside for me?”

  “You’ve worked very hard, Shirley.” He never bothered looking up.

  “That’s right. I’ve worked very hard, Arthur.” Her voice rose slightly before she caught it and calmed it back down, pushing away her anger and taking on the patient, explanatory tones she knew worked better on people. “I have poured my entire life, all of our savings, every favor due me from every tidbit of information gleaned from my patients, everything I have, into building the premiere rehabilitation facility in the world.”

  “You’ve done a wonderful job.” Arthur looked at her now, smiling, looking eager and hopeful. “I can’t believe Mom never thought you’d amount to anything. She’d be rolling over in her grave if she could see what you’ve accomplished.”


  He was the only one who ever dared speak of her mother. Though the crude reminder of her past made her want to slap him. “What Mother would have thought is irrelevant. We have more important matters to discuss.”

  “I know.” He went back to staring at the floor.

  “I can’t have you messing things up for us again. Your attraction to the slut Regina nearly proved disastrous. You’re lucky I got to her before she told anyone about you. And already you’ve started up with that tramp Mindy.”

  “I know. It was wrong of me to touch her. She’s just so…pretty.”

  Shirley sighed. “There are thousands of pretty girls in the world.” Though she was not one of them. She was a short, middle-aged woman with an overly large nose and small eyes. No man ever looked at her twice; if they looked at all. “There may even be millions of pretty girls in the world. I don’t know. I don’t care. What I do know is there is a limited supply of rich and/or famous people in the world looking for rehabilitation services.”

  “That’s true.” He nodded his understanding. “And I know we’re competing for their business with other, more established facilities.”

  “That’s right. And because I have come up with the best, most comprehensive program to deal with addictions of every variety, those other facilities will be jealous; looking for a way to bring me down. We can’t have that now, can we?”

  “Of course not.”

  “And we don’t want a repeat of what happened in Palm Beach either, do we?”

  The mention of Palm Beach made him visibly tense. “No. Absolutely not.”

  “Good.” She went back to her side of the desk and sat down, pushing into the mauve cushions of her recliner. “So what are you going to do from now on?”

  He looked up at her uncertainly. “Be more careful. Make sure nothing happens that could get either one of us in trouble.”

  She softened her expression, allowing him a small smile. “I’m glad we understand each other.” She turned her attention to the recording of the group therapy session, turning up the volume just in time to catch Mindy’s reaction to Scott’s story of adoption. Swiveling her chair back around toward her brother, she smiled. “She’s hiding something.”

  He scratched a head full of hair augmented with hair plugs and kept dark with regular uses of hair dye. “You mean Mindy?”

  “Of course I mean Mindy.” She scoffed. “How a person can be so smart and so stupid at the same time is beyond me.”

  He frowned, his dark eyes narrowing in on her in a look of petulant irritation. “There’s no need to be condescending. I was merely making an inquiry.”

  “A stupid one.” He might be more educated, but she was clearly the brains of their operation. Without her, he’d be living in the gutter somewhere, practicing medicine on homeless bums. “We need to find out what she’s hiding.”

  “We can have Belinda push her harder during her individual sessions.”

  She nodded. “And we will. But we also need to make use of the other people in her group.”

  “She doesn’t seem close enough to any of them to confide anything.”

  “No. She doesn’t. She does have a temper though, and sometimes when people are angry they blurt out things they really don’t mean to.”

  “You want her to get into more arguments with Darla?”

  His eyes lit up at the prospect and it made her laugh. “Yes, Arthur, we’ll keep pushing those two together. And also Scott. His talk of adoption seemed to strike a nerve.”

  “Was she adopted?”

  There was an angle she hadn’t considered. “Maybe. That’s good, Arthur.”

  He smiled appreciatively. “I can use my credentials as a doctor to make inquiries at the hospital where she was born. See what I can find out.”

  “Do it,” Shirley ordered. “And let me know what you find out.”

  “I will.”

  “And while we’re on the subject of adoption, what about Scott?”

  Arthur narrowed his gaze. “The Tyler boy? Nothing. Admits to skipping school, failing classes and doing drugs, but that’s all. Nothing we can use to enforce future good behavior or encourage gifting.”

  Shirley thought for a moment. “What about his family? How are they doing with the hotel seminars?”

  “Mom attended a couple, but never participated in discussions, and stopped showing up at all a couple of weeks ago. Dad never attended at all.”

  “That’s not good. They’ve been here almost a month already. We’re going to run out of reasonable excuses to keep Scott. I don’t want that boy leaving here without us having a firm grip on his family.”

  Arthur nodded. “That’s the problem with teen-agers. They haven’t been around long enough to really do anything. Usually, we can get something on the family though.”

  “Who would have thought the Tylers were so squeaky clean?” Shirley went back to looking at the patient roster on her desk. “How’s Astrid doing?”

  “No family support at all. Haven’t heard a peep from her husband since he dropped her off at the front gate, told us to fix her and call him when she was ready to go home.”

  Shirley sighed. “She may be a lost cause. How’s Walter doing?”

  “Almost ready.” Arthur beamed. “We know he nearly killed that patient during surgery. Wife’s a devout evangelical though. We’re having trouble convincing her to replace her belief system with the CRC philosophy.” He paused then brightened. “Joey’s ready.”

  Shirley allowed herself a small smile. “The comedian drug dealer?”

  “Yes. Patty says his wife’s doing great with the family seminars. Even hears her preaching to the others at the hotel. And he’s gifted generously.”

  “Perfect. Get Joey ready for discharge.” She consulted her list again. “That leaves us with five patients once he’s discharged. We’ll need more referrals.”

  “I’ll have Patty do the Recognition Of Addiction In Others seminar, and remind our guests of their responsibility to help those who are suffering.”

  “Excellent.” Shirley gave her brother a real smile this time. “Good work, Arthur.”

  He smiled, and that made her happy. He was much easier to handle when he was happy. Besides, she liked seeing Arthur happy. Even at forty-one, he had that glow of childhood about him. Ever the optimist, he was. She didn’t want to ruin that. She’d always felt responsible for him.

  Picking up the walkie-talkie on her desk, she called Rory.

  “Yes, Ms. Cantwise.” He answered promptly.

  “I have an important job for you, Rory. One involving Miss LePage.”

  “Miss LePage?” He sounded puzzled.

  “You seem to have developed some sort of rapport with the girl.” She resisted calling her a slut.

  “I have? I’m not sure what you mean.”

  She had to remember not to use big words with Rory. “The girl seems to trust you,” she explained. “She told you about that hallucination she had.”

  “Oh. Right. She did.”

  “I want you to befriend Miss LePage. Do favors for her. Sneak her those cheeseburgers and milkshakes she likes. Whatever it takes.”

  “Okay.” He sounded confused. “Why do you want me to do that?”

  “I need her to open up to you. I’m afraid Miss LePage isn’t very trusting; making it unlikely we’ll get anywhere with her in therapy. And we can’t help her deal with her problems if we don’t’ know what those problems are. Can we?”

  “No, Ms. Cantwise. I understand. I’ll be nice to her.”

  “And you’ll tell me anything you find out?”

  “Of course, Ms. Cantwise.”

  Shirley ended the communication satisfied. One way or another she would find out what Mindy LePage was hiding.

  Arthur got up from the chair, started for the door, and turned back around. “What if the girl recognizes me when she comes for her physical tonight?”

  Shirley considered the possibility briefly, though it seemed unlikely. “
As drugged up as she was, it’s amazing she remembered anything at all. Still, it might be best if we skipped the physicals for a few days. Give whatever memories she has a chance to fade.”

  “The patients are pretty locked into their routines.”

  “I’ll have Belinda discuss the importance of adapting to change with them tomorrow.”

  “Good idea, Shirley. You really do think of everything.”

  Yes, she did. It was exactly that talent for considering all angles that was going to give her the power she’d been striving for all her life. Sighing, she leaned back into her chair and went back to watching Mindy. The little slut was going to be another problem, she was afraid. Another one like Regina Mance. Stubborn, headstrong and uncooperative. People like that worried her. Shirley knew why fate had sent Mindy to her though. Mindy’s presence here had accomplished what, up to now, had seemed impossible. It had brought Earl Grayson straight to her door.

  Shirley smiled just thinking about it. There really was such a thing as destiny.

  Chapter 11

  You have a visitor, Ms. LePage. Rory fetched her from her room with that one simple sentence. Following him to the rec room for visiting hour, the words sounded repeatedly in her head, along with her unasked question. Who? She’d expected Anthony. Maybe Vince. Though she didn’t want to see either. Reaching the doorway, however, she saw she’d been wrong on both counts. The man she saw instead brought the sheen of perspiration to her face and stopped her heart mid-beat. Earl. He sat on a leather loveseat in the far corner, leafing through a CRC pamphlet. Excitement and anxiety danced through her. As much as she wanted to push him away, she longed to see him. She hesitated, standing in the doorway staring. Though good-looking onscreen, in person he was handsome enough to make Brad Pitt weep with envy. He wore his dark hair almost to his shoulders, with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache. Deep blue colored his eyes. And when he smiled, he unleashed dimples that framed his face and softened his rugged features.